


thanks, dublin

by inmylife



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Airports, Ensemble Cast, Family, Inspired by Real Events, M/M, based off my own crazy night spent in dublin courtesy of aerlingus, i dont know what the heck this is just go w it, inconveniences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-03 17:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16330235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmylife/pseuds/inmylife
Summary: "We regret to inform you that flight EI876 to Chicago has been canceled. Please reclaim your checked baggage, call this number to rebook your flight, and proceed to lobby desks 11 and 12 to receive a hotel accommodation."





	thanks, dublin

**Author's Note:**

> this took me way too fucking long to write rip
> 
> not my best work but u know

It is four PM Dublin time, ten PM Bangkok time, midnight Seoul time, and ten AM Chicago time when Ten, Johnny, their children, and all the other passengers are told that their flight gate has been changed and that they should proceed to the other end of the hallway for further updates. It is fifteen minutes later they are told that their flight is cancelled and that they have to collect their suitcases, call a number to rebook their flight, and talk to someone at the downstairs desk about accommodations for the night. It is two minutes after that that the girl in front of them starts to cry. 

"Hey, it's okay," smiles Johnny to her, not-so-subtly steering four-year-old Jisung into Ten's arms. He reaches over her and a few other people to grab a copy of the information paper for her and for himself - he's got a good seven inches on her, or so Ten would guess, and being tall makes reaching over people incredibly easy. He passes the paper back to Ten, who takes one look at the number and begins dialing. 

"Papa, what's going on?" asks Donghyuck, aged six, energetic, and loud. "Aren't we supposed to be getting on the plane?" 

"The flight got cancelled," Ten explains. "So now I have to find a new one. But," he scowls at his phone as he's put on hold, Irish folk music blaring out through speakerphone because the audio on his ancient iPhone is shot, "that might take a while." 

"It'll be an adventure." Johnny appears, clapping a hand on Ten's back and grinning down at their sons. "An  _odyssey_ , Ten. Come on." 

"If you tell me to lighten up..." Ten grits his teeth. He does not need this right now, he does  _not_ , their flight has been canceled and they have two boys under the age of seven who are going to be very jetlagged and very tired any minute now. Jisung already is - he's sniffling from where he's flung himself over Ten's shoulder. 

"One step at a time, Ten. Let's go get our bags." 

* * *

The line at the front desk is ridiculous. Nothing that Ten didn't expect, but it's frustrating anyway, because Donghyuck is clinging onto his pant leg and Johnny is pushing their luggage (and Jisung on top of it) on a cart and they are s _till_ on hold and damn, Ten would really just like to get some part of this over with. 

"Johnny, if we didn't have to visit your sister..." Ten grumbles, biting back the urge to throw his phone somewhere when the automated voice comes on yet again asking him to please be patient and remain on hold. 

"Herin wanted to see the kids." Johnny holds out his hands placatingly. "And we got to spend the day in Dublin yesterday. We got to see the castles."

" _You and Hyuck_ got to see the castles," Ten corrects, because Jisung had wanted nothing to do with the castles in Galway, claiming they smelled like "eggs and old people" - which meant that Ten got the fine job of Jisung-watching. "Oh, fucking finally." Someone's picked up.

"Here, let me," Johnny offers, taking the phone so Ten doesn't have a choice. "I've got the boarding passes, they might need the numbers." 

Ten doesn't protest. Johnny is a lot better at not losing his temper and cursing a blue streak in front of their children in situations like this one and Ten has gotten enough weird looks over the past hour between the kids, the sheerly bizarre height difference between himself and Johnny, and his overstuffed backpack. Speaking of which, his shoulders hurt - they'd been in Seoul for two weeks and Bangkok for a little over a month and they'd acquired so much  _stuff_ that they'd had to resort to unconventional methods to get everything to fit. Including storing three shirts, some socks, and a pair of pants in Ten's backpack. Not to mention the books and laptop that were already there... but he digresses. 

"Did you get a flight?" 

The voice asking is small, timid, and when Ten turns and looks over - he's not tall enough to look _down_ at anyone over the age of fourteen - it's the crying girl from before. She's still teary, but steadier, swimming in her C &A sweatshirt the way Ten does when he wears Johnny's clothes, and her short bangs are disheveled and sticking in weird directions. 

"He's working on it," Ten answers, jerking a head towards Johnny and simultaneously noticing Donghyuck starting to wander off away from the line. "Hey - come back here -" He huffs as he wrests his older son back into the vicinity. "Sorry. Yeah. We're on it. Are you still on hold?" 

She nods. "This is stupid, I mean, you would think they would call more people in when they cancel a flight." She somehow looks more awkward now than she did before, maybe it's that she thinks she's bothering him, but there's nothing Ten wants more than to commiserate right now, and with Johnny on the phone and unrealistically upbeat she's the perfect option. 

"I know. And another thing - what the heck is operational issues, anyway?" He cites the reason they'd been given for the cancellation. "That could be anything."

"Someone in the gate said they'd canceled her flight yesterday too," she added, "but I think she said it was because of the weather. But today it's nice out. So I just don't know." Jisung starts squirming on top of the suitcases, bored without Johnny there to entertain him and increasingly tired, and the girl reaches over and pats his arm. "You're bored, sweetheart?" 

"Tired, more like," Ten corrects, wrapping one hand around Hyuck's upper arm so he doesn't start running away a third time. "We were in Bangkok, they're both still hardwired to be asleep right now. Honestly, I am too." 

"I flew in from Munich," she murmurs. "Isn't this an Irish airline, I didn't even know they had flights out that far." 

"You never know," shrugs Ten. This is when Jisung starts wailing. "Yeah, you're tired, I know. Aren't we all, kiddo." 

The girl laughs and reaches down to take Hyuck's hand so Ten can step away for a second and pick up Jisung. "I'm Hayoung," she smiles. 

"I'm Ten." 

* * *

Johnny gets them a flight for the next afternoon and Hayoung's call goes through soon after. Loads of people are still on hold, though, and some people's phones aren't working at all - an older woman with long hair a few people in front of them has wi-fi calling and is lending hers out to whoever needs it now that her own flight's been booked. Once they're through the front of the line and Johnny's talked to the woman at the desk about a hotel, they join a few people congregating in front of an empty desk. The woman with long hair, whose name Ten has since learned is Hani and who talks with a strong Brooklyn accent, is still lending out her phone, this time to a businessman with sharp cheekbones and a bright smile. Hayoung is splitting a Kit Kat with a girl with long, mermaid-like hair and big eyes while simultaneously keeping an eye on Hyuck so Johnny can focus on Jisung and Ten can focus on complaining. 

"Didn't they say the bus would be here in fifteen minutes, like, a half an hour ago?" asks Ten. 

"Yeah," concurs Hani. "But then again, he's been on hold for an hour now and the only reason the recording isn't telling him that someone will be with him in just a moment is because the tape's run out, so I guess we just can't believe anything they tell us, huh." Hayoung raises her eyebrows and huffs a laugh. 

"I heard they canceled twenty-six flights in the past two days," adds the businessman. "You'd think they'd know how to deal with this by now." 

Ten's startled. "Twenty-six?" Johnny looks up too, from where he's bouncing Jisung against his shoulder like a child two years younger to try and get him to sleep, and they share a look of concern. 

"This is the second flight I've been on that was canceled," the blonde girl informs them, taking the last bite of Hayoung's Kit Kat. "I was supposed to be home yesterday. My sister was on the phone for three hours trying to get me onto this flight, and what happens? They cancel again." 

"Yikes," Hayoung murmurs. 

They wait another hour for the bus. In this time, Ten 1. learns that the businessman's name is Bobby and the mermaid-haired girl Jinsoul, 2. received bottles of water, courtesy of the airline, and 3. complained enough to get most (most) of the annoyance out of his system. The bus ride, which in theory was only supposed to take twenty minutes, ends up taking another hour, with Jinsoul GPSing the thing on her phone and reporting it to everyone a good ten minutes before arrival. "What did we expect," Ten mumbles to a jaded Johnny. He's sure they're not the worst off, though, even with their two exhausted boys - he doesn't envy the single mother with a wailing baby strapped to her chest, three rows behind them.

Oh well. The hotel is fantastic, though, with an ultraviolet-lit aquarium in the lobby and meal vouchers for a  _three course dinner_ from the airline. The elevators are complicated and take experienced traveler Bobby's help to figure out, as do the lights in their bedroom - but once the lights come on in the room Ten is even more stunned. It's so fancy, and he feels out of place being there in his glorified pajamas. 

Johnny sets about putting the kids to bed before drawing Ten in for a hug and encouraging him to go downstairs and eat something. "I have until ten for these, right? I'll join you once they're settled." 

"I love you," Ten sighs, relishing in their closeness. The day was exhausting, but at least it's almost over now.

* * *

 

Dinner is good. He hands the meal voucher - thanks, airline - to a staff member at the hotel bar and they tell him to sit anywhere and hand him a menu. And who does he find but Bobby and Hayoung, already ordered, sitting across from each other and looking a little awkward.  

"Did you guys order?" 

"Yeah," Hayoung says. Bobby flags someone down so Ten can place his order, too, and Hani and Jinsoul come down from their rooms soon after, so they're five sitting at a table for four. This is fine for a little while, but then their food gets there and the small table has two baskets of fish and chips, four glasses of beer and Jinsoul's Irish coffee, some soup, three salads, and a slice of apple pie battling for space on it. 

They try to convince Hayoung, newly eighteen and not able to drink back home, to try their beer. Bobby is the worst instigator - as a parent, Ten steps in and reassures her that she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to, but as Ten, he also tells her that she might as well - and she does end up taking a couple sips out of Hani's glass. She doesn't like it, if her face is anything to go by. She finished quickly, and Ten tries to eat quickly too. He feels obligated, a little, to get back upstairs and back to Johnny quick so he can shower and sleep and so Johnny can come downstairs and eat something. He leaves with the teenager, smiling over to her as they push their chairs in. 

"They're gonna bus us back to the hotel, right?" Hayoung checks. "I mean, sorry, the airport. I'm running on not-very-much sleep," she laughs awkwardly. 

"No worries, I think we're all tired," Ten reassures her. "They said they'd post the bus times at the front desk, here -" he pulls her over to the desk. 

Hayoung grimaces. "My flight's at eight, and I'm going with Hani. Our bus is at four A.M. I really don't want to be the one to tell her that."

Ten holds back a laugh as he pictures Hani's face when she realizes she has to wake up so early. "Probably safe." 

* * *

 The shower is complicated and the shower head points straight down instead of at an angle. It's disconcerting and he hates it, sparing it a glare as he towels down and walks out into the bedroom to change. Johnny's still downstairs when he walks out, and something about the shower's woken him up a little bit, so he sits on the edge of the big soft bed his kids are sleeping in and watches. 

Hyuck's a restless sleeper, prone to nightmares, and tonight's no different - he whimpers as Ten presses a hopefully-soothing kiss to his forehead and whispers an "it's okay" into his ear. Ten reaches over to run a hand over Jisung's hair, too. His poor babies. However stressful today was for him and Johnny, it must have been five times worse for them. 

Fatherhood is weird like that. If Ten were Hayoung, eighteen and alone, he might enjoy this a lot more than he is, the meeting-new-people and trying-new-foods, the drinking beer and the uncertainty. When Ten was eighteen, that's what he thrived on - adventures. And testosterone, and, yes, beer. But now... now he has his kids to think about. Are they getting enough sleep? Will they like whatever there is to eat? Jisung's a picky eater. Will they cry, or throw tantrums? And of course there's that much more to keep track of, and that much more that's urgent to go home to, like school starting in a couple weeks and Hyuck's sixth-birthday doctor's appointment that they've been putting off for too long and - well. Things like that. 

Johnny startles him by opening the door. Ten doesn't know how long he's sat there, looking at his kids - their kids - they've been married almost eight years now and Ten still can't quite believe it - probably too long. But of course no time is too much time when it's for them. 

"We should sleep," Ten whispers after a couple silent seconds have passed, silent seconds filled only with the sound of Johnny's work shoes on the carpeted floor walking over to them. "Our bus is at eight." 

"Come look outside first," Johnny answers. Ten takes the proffered hand and stands, letting his Johnny lead him over to the window. There are lights outside, maybe there's a lit parking lot or a warehouse or god knows whatever else but they're electric and spaced even and he can't see what else there is through the dark. "Beautiful, isn't it. I'd take a picture but it'd reflect off the window and then it'd be ruined." 

"It is pretty," Ten murmurs, leaning into Johnny's chest because yes, that's just how short he is. "But I'm tired, John, and I would bet actual money that you are too."

"You'd win," Johnny acknowledges with a small laugh. "Let's go to bed, Tennie." 

The fact that Johnny doesn't follow that with a shitty pun about " _actual_ money, what, would you bet Monopoly money or something" proves Ten's point.

* * *

 The next morning, they pile into the bus at eight AM along with Bobby and the single mother and her baby from the night before. Bobby likes kids, he says, but is nothing but awkward with Jisung and with Haeyoon's baby, Sohee. Johnny takes the opportunity to hold Sohee in the blink of an eye and the look on his face tells Ten that he may be placing a call to the adoption agency when they land. Hyuck had been three when he'd come to them, but Johnny especially had treasured every moment with infant Jisung before he grew old and walking and talking and independent. Ten shudders just thinking about what Johnny will be like when their kids go off to college. 

The scenery of Dundalk is actually very pretty, now that Ten knows how long the ride is and now that he's experiencing it in broad daylight. Lots of open fields. There are even some sheep, which he points out to the kids (and to Johnny, who is really just a glorified kid himself). 

"We should come back to Ireland. For a real trip," he tells Johnny. 

"It is pretty here. We should. And I like the beer," his husband adds. 

"It's always about beer with you," mutters Ten, ignoring the hypocrisy in that. Johnny swats at him. 

* * *

 

The last thing Ten says to the other passengers of Flight EI876 is "good luck! Hope your flight doesn't get canceled again!"  

**Author's Note:**

> not gonna lie i did meet some cool people through this mess of an airline
> 
> thanks to milo for causing this and to ted for letting me be angry about the situation as it was unfolding and also to everyone on flight EI109 to JFK because i stole my impressions of them for this story. even johnten&co are based on a family on the flight.


End file.
